The Bitter End
by lionesseyes13
Summary: Colin Creevey, Nymphadora Tonks, Mandy Brocklehurst, and Severus Snape all remained loyal to their Houses until their deaths, and all of their deaths serve to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses inherent in their respective Houses.
1. Chapter 1

_Oh, you might belong in Gryffindor, _

_Where dwell the brave at heart. _

_Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_

_Set Gryffindors apart. _

Colin Creevey: Seize the Day

I can feel the life ebbing from me as I lay prone on the ground, my blood staining the emerald grass a stunning Gryffindor crimson. The Death Eaters didn't have to make my death as painful and gory as they did, but they did because I am a Mudblood, and Mudbloods are vermins that don't deserve even the consideration of a clean death.

A clean death. I can't even accept that that I am dying at all, and what makes it even more impossible to absorb is that it is happening on the grounds of the school I love so much beneath trees that I used to do homework, talk with friends, trade Chocolate Frog Cards, ad compete in Wizarding chess tournaments underneath.

I am dying, though, and I need to accept that. I can't waste my last minutes in denial. That will be cowardly. I must not be a coward. I must be brave until the bitter end and not shrink from my fate now.

As I struggle to embrace the death I never really imagined would happen to me, I ask myself whether I would do anything differently if I had the chance to relive my final hours, and my answer is no. Maybe I charged into this battle impulsively and without a plan, but that doesn't make what I did stupid or wrong.

Perhaps even my fellow Gryffindors when they hear of my death will shake their heads and mutter mournfully to each other that my foolishness and my hastiness were my undoing. Maybe even they won't comprehend that I would never have jumped into the fray so willingly if I believed that a satisfactory strategy would be created. Perhaps even they won't understand that I relished life on the precipice and that living on the safe side in my eyes wasn't living at all. Maybe even they will think that I was nuts to thrive off danger and uncertainty as I did, and that it was silly for me to love the rush of adrenaline that coursed through me as I performed my latest bit of insanity.

Maybe even my parents will think me an idiot when they grieve over my cold body, but I know Dennis won't. Dennis will know that his older brother, Colin Creevey, seized the day, and that isn't too bad a legacy for a slight young man who died before he could shave or kiss a girl.


	2. Chapter 2

_Or you might belong in Hufflepuff,_

_Where they are just and loyal._

_Those patient Hufflepuffs are true, _

_And unafraid of toil. _

Nymphadora Tonks: Keeping the Faith

I know what everyone whispers about Hufflepuffs behind our backs. They say we are a lot of duffers, and that we are the weakest House of all—not as brave as the Gryffindors, not as clever as the Ravenclaws, and not as driven as the Slytherins. Those who are kind regard us as frail, naïve innocents, and those who are not so kind try to run us into the dirt.

As a group, the Death Eaters are of the latter persuasion, and I see in their eyes as I automatically lurch forward to protect Remus, who is already falling to the floor dead, that they perceive me as yet another pathetic Hufflepuff.

They don't know that my strength is in the fact that I would never abandon a loved one even if they died. They don't understand that I am willing to accept death if it means that Remus and I won't be parted and that we will be reunited in the hereafter.

I know that as Dolohov strikes me down with his petty Killing Curse, they are all leering at the death of another overemotional Hufflepuff, and, as the castle corridor around me drowns in a jade ocean, I know that their opinion doesn't matter. I know who I am: I am Nymphadora Tonks, and I kept faith until the bitter end, and that is all that means anything to me.

**Author's Note: I chose to have Tonks keep her maiden name in the end, because she is never referred to as Mrs. Lupin or something in the seventh book, and this all felt much more natural to me. I'm sorry if this confuses anyone. **


	3. Chapter 3

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw_

_If you've a ready mind,_

_Where those of wit and learning_

_Will always find their kind._

Mandy Brocklehurst: Nobody's Fool

Stereotypically speaking, Ravenclaws are supposed to be clever, so as I lay dying on the marble floor of the cavernous entrance hall to Hogwarts, I can't help but wonder if I am a defective Ravenclaw. Surely, a smart girl would have fled the castle when she had a chance, instead of sticking around to combat the most powerful evil wizard the world has seen in centuries and his followers. Certainly, a clever girl would never have sacrificed her life to save three other lives.

No, I realize as the world spins around me, I am not defective. I am clever. I understood the equation of life. I knew that my life was not worth more than three other lives. I knew that my life wasn't worth all the people that would die if You-Know-Who was allowed to continue to gain power. I understood that the longer you permit an enemy to fester, the harder it is to defeat. I comprehended that the future of the whole Wizarding World mattered far more than my own existence. I knew that if I believed otherwise I would have been nothing more than an arrogant imbecile.

I went into battle knowing that I could die, and I won't complain about the results of my algebra that I had figured out in advance. After all, I am Mandy Brocklehurt of Ravenclaw, and I am nobody's fool.


	4. Chapter 4

_Or perhaps in Slytherin,_

_Where you'll make real friends._

_Those cunning folk use any means_

_to achieve their ends. _

Sorting Hat, Book 1

Enslaved to No One

As I gaze into the piercing green eyes that look so much like Lily's that I can pretend for my own peace of mind that they are indeed hers, I know that Lily would be proud of me. She would be proud of me not because I embodied the bravery of a Gryffindor, but the cunning and the determination of a Slytherin.

I am the spy who might make it possible for Potter to defeat the Dark Lord once and for all. That knowledge makes me fiercely proud, since I realize quite clearly that nobody could have performed as well as I did. After all, no one is more qualified than a serpent to slink around unnoticed, biting foes in the heel. Moreover, nobody but a snake could infiltrate a serpent's lair.

Nobody could have done a better job than I did, and I, Severus Snape, will die enslaved to no one, because Slytherins are much too ambitious and too prideful to die in chains.


End file.
